Arcade Snacks carries on with a sense of loss

Sunday

Mar 2, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Aaron Nicodemus

"Where's the big guy?"

It's a little quieter at Arcade Snacks in Auburn nowadays without its leader and founder.

George Arcade "Tiny" Ethier, 74, of Sterling, died on Dec. 13. He left behind a loving wife of 42 years, Ann; a son, Barret "T.J." Ethier of Lancaster; and stepsons Richard Haufe of Hudson, and William Haufe and Ronald Haufe, both of Maryland.

He also left behind Arcade Snacks, a thriving snack food wholesaler with 25 employees that Mr. Ethier and his wife founded in his West Acton garage 27 years ago.

People still ask about "the big guy" when they come into the company's retail store at 205 Southbridge St. for some handmade chocolate turtles or roasted cashews, for which the business is locally famous. Mr. Ethier's photo stands front and center behind the counter. His smiling face still beams back from framed newspaper articles and family photos that line the walls.

Mr. Ethier, who battled diabetes for several years, had largely ceded over the day-to-day operation of Arcade Snacks to stepson Richard "Rick" Haufe, who has served as vice president of sales; and son T.J. Ethier, the company's vice president of production.

I visited Arcade Snacks recently to see how the place was handling Mr. Ethier's absence. I can report the company is still mourning, as many of the employees — if not related to him by blood or marriage — knew their boss for years.

The place still hums with activity. Delivery trucks continue to arrive with pallets of candy, chocolate, pretzels, dried fruits and nuts. And other trucks arrive to take packaged snack products to customers like Gillette Stadium, Foxwoods Casino, Stop & Shop supermarkets or Pizzeria Uno.

Ann Ethier, who is the company secretary and treasurer, still works at a desk in her husband's old office. His empty desk has been cleared of everything but a collection of antique toy cars.

Her desk is covered with invoices and bills. Taped to the walls are lots of brightly colored artwork from the grandkids, along with glowing notes from customers.

She still remembers, with fondness, packing bags of roasted cashews into boxes while she and George watched television. They roasted their first batch of cashews in their garage, and she can still remember their first delivery to a customer in Concord.

Arcade Snacks has been a family business since Day One, she said, and remains so.

"The kids are pretty instilled with his work ethic," she told me, referring to George. "All of our children, they turned into really good people, and I think to myself now, I would say, we did a really good job."

Rick Haufe and T.J. Ethier are clearly in charge at Arcade Snacks, and have been for some time.

With his health failing for the past several years, George would spend months away with Ann at their summer home in Easton, Md. He would call the office every day, though, and check in.

"If he had his way, he'd have been behind the desk every day," said Rick. "We all had a job to do, whether he was here or not, and we did our jobs. We miss him, terribly. He was very proud of everything he had accomplished."

The company has made slow, steady progress. Founded in 1986 as Arcade Industries, it expanded from the Ethiers' garage to a commercial facility in West Acton, then into larger facilities in Hudson and Northboro. It moved to its current home, a 16,000-square foot facility in Auburn, in 2005.

Rick, who has been working for the company since Day One, said he remembers the blind panic he felt when the company landed Stop & Shop as a customer. The initial order, he said, was huge.

"How are we going to fill it?" he asked his stepfather. George replied, "What's wrong with you? Don't ever ask how you're going to fill an order. We'll fill it."

There were lots of potholes along the road to success. There were weeks when all the employees were paid, except for George and Rick. Vacations weren't talked about much in the early days, and rarely taken.

Ann, the family matriarch, has long been the arbiter of family and business disputes large and small. And there were some serious disagreements over the years.

"The key to a family business," Rick told me, "is being able to come to work the next day."

The UPS drivers' strike in 1997 turned out to be a huge challenge. Desperate to continue delivering product, Mr. Ethier called his other sons, who had gone on to other careers in other states, to come back and help deliver product to customers from Maine to New Jersey.

"We always wanted to be the best vendor for our customers," Rick said. "Losing was never an option."

Rick has a photo album in his office, put together by one of the company's employees. It is filled with old photos of George and his family at work, and at backyard barbecues. Judging from the photos, the line between when work ended and family life began has long been blurred.

"There's always so much to do here, sometimes it's overwhelming," Rick said. "But you just push through it."

As we were speaking in Rick's office last week, a tractor-trailer appeared in the company's back lot to make a delivery. It was immediately clear the driver was having trouble moving the trailer into position. He backed it up, he pulled forward, backed up, pulled forward.

Rick opened the window of his second-floor office, which overlooks the loading dock. He called down to the employee who was waiting to unload the truck: "Is this guy going to make it?"

Then, closing the window, he mused, "Am I going to have to show this guy how to drive?"

There are days when deliveries come fast and furious, and everyone has to pitch in to move the product into the warehouse, he said. The business is still small enough that everyone knows everyone else. Titles and job descriptions are simply not as important as just getting the job done.

"We have worked very hard, all of us, our employees, to make this happen," Rick said. "My dad always told us, if we work hard, and give people a great product at a fair price, our business would grow."